Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stub n.

1. a short person.

1823		J.F. Cooper Pioneers (1827) II 213: What’s that you say, you old, dried corn-stalk! you sapless stub!
1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 3 May n.p.: [of a boy] ‘Where did you go last night stub?’ ‘Down to Capt. Farley’s’.
1865		Harper’s Mag. Dec. 133/2: In these [...] regions there dwells a stub of the law who is possessed of august presence [DA].
1890		J. Curtin (trans.) of Sienkiewicz With Fire and Sword 514: I have something to say to this little stub of an officer [DA].

2. a child.

1949

N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 117: Vicious little twists unknown to luckier stubs.

In phrases

on the stub (adj.)

(US ) impoverished.

1926

Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: On the Stub - Financially embarrassed, broke.